kevinolzak Review of The Diary/A Matter of Semantics/Big Surprise/Professor Peabody's Last Lecture

Night Gallery: The Diary/A Matter of Semantics/Big Surprise/Professor Peabody's Last Lecture (1971) Season 2, Episode 8

John Carradine in Richard Matheson's "Big Surprise"

[7/10 · 23 July 2020]

11 years after his memorable TWILIGHT ZONE "The Howling Man," John Carradine is back for another Rod Serling anthology, the Nov. 10, 1971 broadcast of NIGHT GALLERY offering a Richard Matheson short called "Big Surprise." We are told that Carradine's old Mr. Hawkins is never seen away from his farmhouse, believed to be a crazy geezer guaranteed to frighten off children. To this end he calls over young Chris (Vincent Van Patten) to share the secret location of a 'big surprise' if he can dig down four feet for it beside an oak tree in a large field, the extensive bird footage culled from Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic. Two friends start digging for the promised treasure that Chris expects, but as daylight fades they leave him alone to come across a large oak chest with a lock that only a shovel can remove. The nature of this 'surprise' may not be predictable on a first viewing but in hindsight must be considered the only one possible. Some commentators have deduced that Hawkins is merely a ghost that is only seen at his farmhouse, his physical remains exactly where his latest recruit can find it, doomed to repeat the same actions for all eternity, a fine summation though Matheson deliberately leaves the climax ambiguous. It's a part tailor-made for the flamboyant Carradine, laughing maniacally as he has his way with the naivety of a teenage boy.